After the Flood!

When I got home from Wednesday Witches, Walter was vacuuming up water off of the bedroom floor.  We had a plumbing problem and lots of puddles.  Walter is handling it while I am writing this... I am not much help I moved some things and he took care of the flood.

Thank you Walter!!!

He rescued three kits that I had under the bed.  Now I have Tessie following me around begging for another three new buildings.  I hoped that she would never find the Harrison... That's a BIG kit.

I am back to trying to talk her into the travel trailer...

I think that I found a place outside for the Forest Fantasy Cottage... Since I moved things around out there, I have a round table about the right size with nothing on it.  We shall see...

Right now I am just hoping for no water in the bedroom. 

Walter is using the wet/dry vac  and the carpet cleaner to get it up... I think that everything is going to be ok.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Back to the flood.

See you tomorrow.

It's a Play Day!

I had a doctor's appointment at 12:20PM, so there wasn't much sense in starting a mini project.

I got out a piece of the new silk velvet and started planning...

I also found the last bracelet that I started. 

When  I pulled things out for the new bracelet, the old one came to light.  I have to finish that one... I think that it will be a favorite after finished.

For the new one, I cut a piece of heavy interfacing for the foundation. I cut the silk velvet larger all around, so that I can fold it and stitch it on the back to finish.

I first stitched the backing to the velvet.  Then I stitched around the edge of the velvet at the edge of the  backing, so that I would know not to stitch outside the lines.

So far, I have not made a choice.  I am looking at the things that I have laid out on it, but no decisions yet.

I bought myself a present yesterday.  I found this very small sketch book at Walmart.

I already had the pencil, pen and set of tiny colored pencils.

I can see that this is going to lead to making a cover for the whole set.  It will be handy to carry around that way. 

It may end up being nothing but a small doodle pad, but it will be my doodle pad and I like it!

Anyway, I have lots of things to keep me amused for the rest of the day.  Back to minis tomorrow.

See you then!

Big, and Lots of Little...

I have no idea what I am doing right, but there were a record number of flowers on the  Loco Weed this morning.  Seventeen!

Too bad that they only bloom at night and start fading as soon as the sun comes up.  I got this photo because it was cloudy this morning.

Tessie made a unilateral decision this morning... Since we are using the fancy hooded chair that I made her in the conservatory, she needs a new one for the spell room in the townhouse.  She started it yesterday and I kept it going to long into the night... OK.  It was only about eight o'clock, but it seemed longer.

Anyway, another project that I didn't want to start... That's the problem.  She starts the projects and then makes me feel guilty unless I finish them...GRRRRR

I also put together eight kits for the Wednesday Witches to learn how to do coiled baskets...

They all fit in one of my larger glasses cases.  Not at all hard to carry along.

The basket that Tessie is holding is the one that they are going to do. 

That little thing will teach them to start, coil, bend up the sides, add a handle and finish. 

That's all they need to know to finish any size or type of coiled basket...

All set for Wednesday.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Need I Say More???

April and Amare came over this morning. We had a good time playing.  Now I should get back to work.... However, I made the mistake of looking at unfinished projects and unstarted ones also...I started in the workroom on the right side as you walk in the door...

From the right and continuing around the room.

Weaver's Cottage(Tessie's)
Russian Cottage(April's)

Fairfield, 1/2" scale.... For Half inch Tessie.  Beside that, five boxes...

Below that, an empty terrarium.

Zar's Clockwork Cottage... An empty room box, like the one that the Elizabethan lady lives in, in the bedroom...

On the plant shelf. Two antique food boxes... A kitchen shelf...An empty box lamp... We won't talk about what's behind those...

A castle corner box.  Another terrarium and another corner box.

Below, and empty glass jar, a display case and at the other end a room box shelf...

Then we adjourn to the bedroom and peek under the bed...

Brimble's Mercantile(future home of Zar's Bizarre Bazaar).

The Vineyard Cottage(Just for me).

 Under the other side, The Magnolia.

And at the foot of the bed, the two wood eating gremlins that guard the Harrison... It's the largest and has the most scraps.  They are getting anxious.  The scraps are running out...

I hope that they haven't started eating houses!

I'm working as fast as I can! Evidently, not fast enough for these two!

See you tomorrow.

Early American Moroccan...

Sometimes laziness is the mother of invention.

I wanted a chest of drawers and shelves for the kitchen.  One that would fit between the living room door and the front of the room.

I didn't really want to start something from scratch.  I wasn't in the mood for all of that measuring and cutting...

So, I turned to my stash of House of Miniatures kits.  I don't know if you remember when I found a stash at the antique store, for two dollars each, several years ago.  I bought all that they had.


From chest on chest to small chest and shelving.

I went looking and there are a lot of Moroccan painted chests and shelving units in the real world.  Lots of examples to draw from...

I put together the top of the chest as it was supposed to be.  Then I cut down the base/leg pieces to fit that.

I did a bit of carving on that part to make it look not so Early American and more Moroccan.

Then I had to decide how to go about making the shelves from the bottom half.

I used the back and the sides of the bottom unit, the top and one of the drawer dividers.  I sketched out a plan for the sides.  Cut them on the scroll saw.  Then I cut down and beveled the shelf to fit.

I cut a fancy bottom for the back, drilled three holes with the Dremel Mity Mite.  I cut down three fancy toothpicks for pegs.  I did a little carving on the sides. Glued it together and still had a few pieces left over...Maybe some small shelves somewhere.

Again, I can't tell you the exact color of the paint.  I mixed until I got something that I liked.

I will be doing some fancy painting on both pieces so there is still a lot of work ahead.

I will probably antique the whole thing and rough it up a bit before I am done also.  This is just a base coat.

Anyway, that's the story so far... And I'm sticking with it.

We haven't heard from Daisy yet today.  I do hope that she doesn't change her mind and want Early American now...  Oh well.  If she does, there's a lot more of that where this came from...

See you tomorrow.

If All Else Fails.....Read the Directions...

But we did read the directions.  Especially the first line...

I decided to see if I wanted an outside staircase on the Weaver's workshop or not.

We took the kit out.  Cut the plastic shrink wrap and pulled out the directions.

So far, so good.  Then we tried to follow the directions...That's when things went haywire.

The very first sentence of the directions is, "Label all parts in light pencil before removing from the sheet.

What would you do?  I very carefully removed the plastic shrink wrap.  I had to lift it off of the work surface to get the back off....Oops!

See all of those pieces that Tessie has in hand?

Those very neatly dropped off of the bottom sheet and into a messy pile.  I think that Greenleaf should put a warning sign before they tell you to label the pieces....Like "Do not remove the plastic wrap!"

After I finish here, I will probably spend the next 15 to 20 minutes trying to figure out what these pieces are and carefully labeling them.

Most irritating development.

Of course the ones that you use first are the pieces that make up the corner posts.  It tells me to stick three of them together...(warped)  I did the old dots of glue trick.  Instead of a line of glue down the strips, that would warp them worse, I put dots about an inch apart.

Then I found a square corner to clamp them to.  Unfortunately the gluing jig is too short.  My lap table works just fine.

I have all six posts(18 pieces) glued and forced into straightness.  Between Tessie and I, we squeezed them into submission.

Whilst they are drying, we are going back to see if we can identify about 15 pieces of wood that are somewhat similar and were stuck to one another.  When they dropped out, they left one big hole....It is not going to be like a jigsaw puzzle, where you have clues with little tabs. 

Like I said, this could take a while.  Hopefully we will figure it out before tomorrow and have a finished staircase for you to see.

As usual, I can't leave well enough alone.  It may end up being a completely different staircase than the one in the illustration. Wish us luck!

See you tomorrow.

Rainy Sunday, Hail-y Monday....

Yesterday rain and this morning, as you can see from the photo of our neighbor's yard, there was hail on the ground for a while. Two days of this kind of weather is not the usual AZ climate.

That's what all of the white dandruff on the ground in the first photo is. BB shot sized hail. Ick!

This morning I cleaned and did some laundry and then I did a bit of mini-ing.

It took me almost all of 45 minutes!


Every year, Greenleaf Dollhouses http://shop.greenleafdollhouses.com/?gclid=CIy0l77i864CFcIFRQodR0M08w puts out a kit that is especially designed for their "Spring Fling" contest.

I have belonged to their dollhouse forum for a number of years. It is open to anybody that is interested in dollhouses of all kinds. Everybody is waiting impatiently to find out what the kit is going to be this year. It usually shows up around the first day of spring.

The way it is supposed to work is, you buy the kit and build whatever you want with it. Then you can try to win a number of prizes with it. I think that the deadline is around Labor Day.

I usually buy the kits and stash them for future use. One of them is the Russian Cottage. That one was from about 3 or 4 years ago.

I had the one from last year under the bed. Whenever I don't want to build from scratch and want a quick project that is still a complete building, I usually turn to them. I am always afraid that, if I don't start the one from last year, they might not let me have the one from this year.....And besides, if I didn't do it that way, I would have a huge stack of kits....Oh wait...I do have a stack of kits under the bed already. Pretty soon I will be like the "Princess and the Pea" Only I am not a princess and it will be a lot more lumpy.

Last year's kit was great. You could purchase the main building. Then if you wanted it to be bigger, they had a right and left wing and an outside staircase kit. Those three could be purchased separately.

I got the main building, the left wing and the staircase. The excitement was, all were laser cut. Having never tried their laser cut kits before, I decided to give it a try.

This morning, about 11:45, I pulled the kit from under the bed. It took me about 10 minutes to get the parts out of the package. That was the hardest part.

After less than 45 minutes, this is what I had. The main structure is all glued together and ready to decorate.

I don't think that I ever want to do another die cut kit after this.

I still have the side wing and the staircase to assemble, but I have to decide how I want to do it and what it is going to be.

Zar and Tessie are arguing about that, naturally...

If they don't watch it, I am going to find a new friend that is more co-operative and they can go party somewhere else.

Incidentally, the window mullions are laser cut right into the sides of the house and all of the trim is just waiting to be installed....Absolutely NO SANDING!!!

I might just call this a case of love at first sight! Now all I have to do is figure out what it wants to be when it grows up.

P. S.!!!!! I just left the forum. The kit won't be out until next week. Dean(the Greenleaf Man) announced that the kit is going to be under 20 dollars this year, so that people can watch their pennies! It will have add ons, for extra money, if you want to make it bigger.

See you tomorrow.

Hang On! I'm Here.....Finally!

We had the annual after Christmas, Christmas party for Wednesday Witches today. A great time was had by all. We ate until thoroughly stuffed and then played.

The gift I received in the exchange wasn't a mini, but it has possibilities....It is a potpourri jar with a pewter top, from Williamsburg. It is very pretty and smells good to boot.

I do believe that the top, should I ever desire to do it, could make a very pretty crown for a four poster bed. For now, it is just going to sit, smell good and look pretty.

The other mini that we all got was a choice of paintings printed on fine canvas. I chose "The Hay Wain". It is one of my favorite John Constable paintings. I will have to get to work and put a frame around it soon. I definitely want to hang it somewhere.

While I am showing Christmas gifts, I have to show you the match box that my friend Jo sent me. I couldn't show it earlier because she made several for friends and I didn't want to give it away before they all got theirs.

She made the scene in side from tiny cuts of wood and turned it into a shadow box. Jo said that it was NOT for Tessie....I don't think that she can do anything about keeping it away from her. Tessie is getting quite a collection of minis. All pilfered from me.....

I have been contemplating some furniture moving in our real life bedroom. I mentioned it, in passing, to Walter a couple of days ago.

When I got home from the party, this is what I found. Tessie, Zar and Mookie were rummaging under the bed. As I walked in, all three turned and looked at me accusingly.

Of course, Tessie took the lead, "You've been holding out on us! There are houses under the bed!"

In my defence, they all knew that there was a stash in that location....Sometimes their collective memory is short...

In any case, Mookie is losing interest fast. No Kitty Condos under there.

I am not so sure about the Terrible Two though. Zar found the Greenleaf contest kit from last year. Tessie found the Magnolia.

That's the one that she wanted to turn into Spiderwort Manor a couple of years ago....Nope...Still not started.

Zar is off drawing up plans for a Clockwork Laboratory now, with the Greenleaf kit under his arm, so to speak....

I am going to quickly move the bed and shove both kits back under. Then I am going to hope and pray that they don't find the Harrison kit on the other side....Here's hoping that all will be forgotten by morning....

See you tomorrow.

Under The Bed......

Never buy a new bed! If you do, you must remove the old one and everything that is under it to make room....

We made the mistake of buying two new beds this weekend. The bad news? The above problem. The good news? Now I will have two beds to store things under. Shhhh....Don't tell Walter!

We decided to put a bed back in April's old room.(computer room) There was only one bed in the house....Ours. Now there will be two.

Anyway, I found a Magnolia, a Harrison, a Sweetheart, the contest kit for this this year from Greenleaf and a mobile home that Kathi, from Beautiful Mini Blessingshttp://beautifulminiblessings.blogspot.com/, sent me a couple of months ago. Thanks again Kathi!

I pulled the kits out the the front hallway by the family room. As soon as I did, Tessie and Zar started arguing. They are trying to claim the kits and both want new builds NOW.

I have news for them. It is going to take me another week to get everything back to where I can work on the ones I have started, let alone new ones.

A couple of people made comments yesterday, saying that the new 30s hairdo didn't look that easy to do. It really is, if you have the right hair in the first place. The trick is the viscose curls that you can get at the mini shows. I imagine that you could find it somewhere on line also. I have never tried to find it though. It is much softer than the mohair that comes in a braid. There is a lot less in the viscose package.

The other trick is not to mess with the hair too much. I start at one end and try to fan it out about a half inch from there.

It will look like the piece in the first photo. Both ends are still coiled and the center is unfurled.

Once you get it to this shape, fit it around the lady's head, starting at the center back with one end.

When you lay it around the head, make sure that you can stretch the center edge to cover the whole skull.

Take it off, cover the head with white glue, where you want the hair to stick. I use Aleene's Fast Grab. Replace the hair on the head and fuss with it a bit until you are sure that the whole thing is arranged the way that you want it. Then cut of the end that is not being used. You may have to trim the back a bit and poke at it to make it the way that you want it. Don't press down too hard unless you want the flat look.

You can add a bun to the back if you like. I am going to leave this one just as it is.

I have to get back now. The argument is still going on in the family room....From what I can hear, it sounds like Zar is getting the house trailer and Tessie is getting everything else. I hope that she likes living in flat houses under the bed. I am not starting another building for her until I finish some of the others that are half done....

See you tomorrow.

Not My Favorite Thing To Do.....

Yesterday at Witches, my friend Sue had a bunch of kits that she wanted to get rid of for very reasonable prices. I bought two.

The first was a set of five shelves from England. They were very simple and straightforward. Paint the castings for the sides black for wrought iron and just varnish the shelves themselves. They are made of very nice walnut. Well cut and not much sanding. Those only took a matter of minutes to do.

The second was a candle stand and two candy dishes. It's not like I haven't done anything like this before, but I should have done it my way instead of theirs. It was a matter of stacking the beads and findings in a certain order on the center post. OK. Easy.

Then came the tricky part....Usually when I put dangles on chandeliers and such, I start with long head pins and then after getting them on, I snip the excess ends off with side cutters. Very easy.

This time, I opted to do it like the directions that were enclosed with the materials....GRRRRR....

To say the least, their method was frustrating. The enclosed short headpins that were already clipped to size. The directions said to put a hook in the end....Which I always do with the longer ones....Then it said to hook them into the finding on the candle stick and squeeze the ends together.....I repeat....GRRRRR.....

I am going to be finding assembled bead and headpin hooks in the rug for weeks. I think that i ended up with a few flying about 20 feet across the room and others shot straight up and came down in my hair....I couldn't figure out why there were about three times as many beads and headpins in the package as would be needed....Now I know.


I was also not impressed with the candles that they provided. There was a long piece of stiff coated wire, that had to be cut and then scraped at the end to make the wire look like a candle. They have to be kidding! I have never seen a candle wick that is almost as wide as the candle. I will be replacing these as soon as I am finished here.

All in all, the pieces look nice, but I am going to re do the whole thing. Some of the dangle thingies still aren't all the way closed and if you touch or jiggle it just right, the will fall off.

If I use my longer headpins, I can rectify the whole situation in about 15 minutes. And they won't fall off when I am done....OK....Enough ranting for one day.

At least Tessie likes them. Now she wants crystal knobs on the zebra chest to match. Don't tell her, but I told Zar that he could have the shelves of the Clockwork Cottage. Each shelf is successively smaller. I think that they will work better in his house. Tessie isn't showing much interest in the shelves anyway. She is more interested in the sparkly stuff.

I am off to find knobs for the chest.

See you tomorrow.

"More Houses! I Need More Houses!!!"

That has been Tessie's anthem for the past twenty four hours....Well maybe twelve....

Yesterday, after I left you, I decided that since the bashing of the lowboy turned out well, I should go look and see what other HoM kits I had in the drawer. When Tessie saw the drawer full, she started chanting.... I should never open a drawer like that in her presence.

I started with the chest of drawers on the far left. Then the desk on the far right. Last night, while watching Glee, I did the two in the middle. I haven't decided what is going to happen to them next, but at least they are out of the drawer and built. It's like potato chips....Bet you can't build just one. The last kit, the one behind Tessie, was strange. It had never been opened, but evidently they made a mistake at the factory. One of the drawers had no back and another one had two fronts. I took advantage of this by eliminating the "three drawer" fake front on the top drawer. I think that this one is going to turn into something modern.

This morning very early, I went back to the drawer that contained the HoM kits. Then I went one drawer up, to the Chrysnbon kits. I discovered that I have a plethora of of both. What am I saving them for? Logic says that they will take up no more space when built than in the boxes. Actually, that's not true, but I am more apt to use them if they are already put together and ready to use somewhere. Soooo.......I am on a rampage to build the kits.

There are eight more HoM kits. There are five, six counting the chair, Chrysnbon kits. And there is a plastic box filled with parts for a lot of treadle sewing machines....No case parts, just the metal stand and sewing machine heads. I don't think that these count as kits. Just spare parts, with possibilities....

Anyway, if I get all of these put together, it will be a miracle. As my friend Judy says, "It should keep me busy and out of biker bars for a while!" I don't really do that sort of thing and neither does she, but I love the phrase.

I looked for Tessie to pitch in and help this morning. I couldn't find her anywhere. You know how she disappears when there is work to be done.....I finally found her in the back yard. The Mexican Morning Glories are in full bloom, once again. For a couple of weeks every year our back yard looks like this. I can't blame her for wanting to stroll through the pink carpet, rather than work on furniture.....No....I must build....I must build...I must build...

I am off to see if I can set a record for the most pieces of furniture built in one day.

See you tomorrow.

Two Walls Are Better Than None......

It's Wednesday again.....The witches are meeting for minis about three blocks from here so I won't have far to fly.

I went to work and finished another wall this morning. With no help, what so ever, I might add.

It was pretty quiet for the first couple of hours. Then the grand tour started......Yup...Tessie was determined to show Zar why his cottage was not getting done. And would not be done anytime in the near future if she has anything to say about it.

The poor man was practically in tears.

First I caught them behind the workroom door. Tessie was showing him the Magnolia kit. She explained, "This is going to be my country house for vacations. Get it? We are working on the townhouse now....I will need a country house to balance things out."

Zar was silent and I could hear him grinding his teeth together.

The next think I knew, they had disappeared again. I let it be for a while and then got curious.

It seems that Tessie has been paying the wood eating gremlins under the bed to not eat the Harrison and the Storybook cottage kits that are under there. They are now officially house guards. I see that I am missing quite a bit of wood that I had stored in different spots around the house..... When I questioned her about it, she said, "Well, someone had to pay them and they only want to be paid in wood."

"Tessie, you gave them the crown molding for your townhouse!" I said.

"What did you want me to give them? An end table?". I could tell that she didn't mean a mini one from the townhouse. I quickly ran and checked to see if both end tables were still in the living room. They were.

She then went flouncing back to the bedroom and once more disappeared under the bed.

When I caught up, she was introducing Zar to the gremlins. She explained to the gremlins...."This is Zar. He's not wood. Don't bite him." And then to Zar...."If you know what's good for you, you won't try to steal my houses. If you do, I will tell the gremlins that you are made of maple. They love maple!"

She then proceeded to explain that, if he didn't watch it, she was going to make sure that both of these buildings would be finished before we got back to the Clockwork Cottage.

She didn't realize that I was spying. I managed to get Zar alone and tell him that, if she didn't straighten up and fly right, I was going to go back to work on the Clockwork Cottage.

A look of hope lit up his eyes. I think that I just made a terrible mistake. I have a feeling that I just started World War III!

I am getting out of here this afternoon. Thank goodness. Before I leave, I am going to sit them both down and tell them that nothing is going to get done if they both don't behave.

When I get back, they had better have things settled or I am going on strike. No dollhouse building at all.......

Who am I kidding? That won't happen....Better yet, I may just have to go work on someone else's house. That will fix them!
As I was typing, I looked over to see Cordelia sitting on her front steps.

Loud enough for the other two to hear, I yelled, "Cordelia, how would you like to finally have your house finished? It could be easily arranged."

Gotta run now. Things could get ugly.

See you tomorrow.

A Series of Very Fortunate Events.......

Our vacuum bit the dust a few days back....I decided that it was time to throw in the towel and go get a new one. Walter and I both did online research and I went to Best Buy to purchase one.

After I finished there, something or someone told me that I needed to go to the Assistance League Thrift Shop. It is way over by where April lives and I don't very often get there unless we plan to go together. I kind of felt like someone was whispering in my ear "You MUST go to that thrift shop. You MUST go to that thrift shop." There are several thrift shops that are closer. There is even one that is almost next door to Best Buy. I opted not to go to any of the closer ones. The weird thing was, it sounded strangely like Tessie's voice. How could I resist? I usually wind up doing what she wants anyway. So I went.

I wandered around for a while and then I saw this.

It looks like a kit of some kind, but I have never seen it before. It's not very big, but interesting in shape. Someone did a good job putting it together and painted it white. That's as far as they got. Hey! What more could you ask? Well put together and primed. I looked at the price and grabbed it. It was $5.00.

As you can see, Tessie approves. She thinks that it would make a good shop of some kind.

The basket on the porch comes later in the story.

I looked to the left and just about fainted.(Not really)There was a Houseworks Porch Kit! It was all put together and unpainted. Also with a $5.00 price tag!

Tessie took one look at it and announced "Hey! All you have to do is build a house behind it and put some steps in front so that I don't have to jump."

Yup. That's all I have to do.

I took those two up to the front and paid. I rushed them to my car and came back in. There was a third building.....It was a poor forlorn Sweetheart cottage that someone had decorated for Easter. A lady was looking it over pretty good, so I figured that one was a goner....I made a silent deal with myself. If she let go of it, I would adopt that poor orphan too, but only if it was 5.00. That seemed to be the going rate. She really messed with it inside and out. Then abruptly walked away. I acted just like Tessie. I pounced on it and in my mind I yelled "MINE!!!".

That one will need the most work, but the Sweetheart Cottage is one of my all time favorite houses. It is just the right size for a shop.

When Tessie saw that one, she freaked! "What did you do to my house? Did you make a deal with the Easter Bunny to rent it? How dare you?" Then she turned around with a gleam in her eye....."This means I don't have a place to live! You will have to build Spiderwort Manor."

"Tessie, I hate to disillusion you. Look up on the shelf. Your house is still up there. This is just a duplicate." I knew I shouldn't have said that!

She started jumping up and down, shaking her fists and shouting. "You mean to tell me that my house is not original? Zar's house is more original than mine is. I don't want to live there anymore. I need a new house!!!!!".

I had to think fast. I tossed my last purchases on the table and she started to purr like a kitten when I said " These are to make up for the mistake. We will start your house soon." I didn't say how soon. I may be foolish, but I'm not stupid.

About the last purchases... After I left the thrift shop,I figured I was on a roll so I stopped at my favorite antique mall.

One of the stalls had a bunch of unopened, House of Miniatures kits just sitting there waiting for some sucker to buy them.....Here I am! They were priced at 4.50 and 5.00 a piece. I looked up and there was a sign on the edge of the booth that said "Everything in this booth is 40% off". Tell me that was not a signal for me to buy...I purchased 6.

Between the three structures and the kits, Oh and the basket on the porch ($1.00) I spent $34.89. I just tried looking up the price on the kits....The Chippendale desk kit is selling on one e bay site for $25.00 right now! I didn't see any of them for less than $6.oo.....Good deal? I think so. I paid under three dollars for each kit.

Now about Spiderwort Manor.....It is just going to have to wait. I want to play with the orphans. Don't tell Tessie!!!! Please!!!

See you tomorrow.